O Yankees were without their superstar outfielder Juan Soto for the second game in a row on Saturday night and it led to an ugly and lopsided 11-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In addition to Aaron Judgewhich has remained hot with two home runs, the rest of New York’s offense has struggled mightily in Soto’s absence, as it has scored just four runs in its brief losing streak.
The 26-year-old is expected to remain sidelined for a few more days while he overcomes inflammation in his left elbow, but after the game it appeared that Aaron Boone you feel like you are going in the right direction.
“Today he felt very good, visibly better in the eyes,” said the captain. “It was important that he didn’t do too much baseball-related stuff yesterday to try to calm him down. It seemed like he felt a lot better today.”
Boone added that Soto was able to do his normal prep work without a hitch, and while he wasn’t sure if he hit any hits, he expects to get some on Sunday if everything looks good when he arrives.
The Yanks are optimistic that the slugger will be able to avoid a trip to the injured list, but will likely continue to take things day-to-day moving forward.
While they can’t afford to lose him for an extended period of time, there’s no denying that this offense would benefit greatly if their swinging lefty returned to the mix sooner rather than later.
Before the injury, Soto was hitting a stellar .318 with three triples, 11 doubles, 17 home runs, 46 walks, 53 RBI, a .424 on-base percentage and a 1.027 OPS in his first 64 games in pinstripes.
